Paul Craig Roberts - In Richistan: Fantastic Wealth for a Few; Steady Decline for Many

[QC]

Fantastic article!

In Richistan there is a two-year waiting list for $50 million 200-foot yachts. In Richistan Rolex watches are considered Wal-Mart junk. Richistanians sport $736,000 Franck Muller timepieces, sign their names with $700,000 Mont Blanc jewel-encrusted pens. Their valets, butlers (with $100,000 salaries), and bodyguards carry the $42,000 Louis Vuitton handbags of wives and mistresses.

Richistanians join clubs open only to those with $100 million, pay $650,000 for golf club memberships, eat $50 hamburgers and $1,000 omelettes, drink $90 a bottle Bling mineral water and down $10,000 “martinis on a rock” (gin or vodka poured over a diamond) at New York’s Algonquin Hotel.

...

Never before in our history has the elite had such control over the government. To run for national office requires many millions of dollars, the raising of which puts “our” elected representatives and “our” president himself at the beck and call of the few moneyed interests that financed the campaigns.

America as the land of opportunity has passed into history.

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts08022007.html

[Captain Angry]

1. Woof.

Thanks for the post. I really enjoy the stories that expose the next couple levels of wealth above the ones that are considered the ceiling.

Now, if you have a golf course that requires $650,000 to join, how many people will you meet there that are different than you? These insulated enclaves will only stay hidden for so long.

Did you ever hear of the exclusive community being built (I think in Alabama) that has a full sized NASCAR track, with full permissions to drive on it, runways, helipads, security fences, etc?

I've read stories about the unbelievably wealthy who have been moving assets out of the US because they're concerned there will be a revolt. The gated communities are going to be in trouble if jobs keep leaving, wages keep falling, costs keep rising.

[ixion]

2. PCR continues to knock them out of the park

great read. thanks for posting.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. He was interviewed on NPR this morning, and the good news is...

from what he saw, the kids of these people are so out of it they'll blow the money and a good trillion or so will be back in the economy before you know it.

But, no matter how it's spun, I don't see this shit as much different or worse than back in the Gilded Age where much of the "old money" came from.

[tom_paine]

4. PCR might well have been a Reagonomist, so to speak, but he is an American first

That's what makes Loyal Americans stand out so badly from Loyal Bushies.

Further I would say that listening to some of his columns about Carter vs. Reagan monetary policies, I am also inclined to believe that, unlike today, not nearly everything Reagan did (at least until 1984 or so, when increasing senility and the firing of his last friend that wasn't Loyal or Royal Bushie -Don Regan- forced the defacto coronation of our First Emperor, Poppy Augustus Bush, who's TRUE reign was 1984-1992) was designed to screw the American People, though much of it was designed by Bushies to do just that, and certainly everything the Bushies' did from 1992-present achieved those aims.